Friday Afternoon "Nobody Is Even Reading This Because The Game Is On" Linkapalooza: 4/6

It's Opening Day, so obviously sitting around checking the Yankosphere isn't anybody's highest priority.  But that still won't stop me from giving the best of the best their props for a job well done.  So when you're done watching the game, come check out the best of the week that was.  Onto the links.

- On Monday, William Juliano of The Captain's Blog examined the Montero-for-Pineda trade through the lens of the recent trend of teams extending their young stars to long-term deals.

- EJ Fagan of TYA questioned the Montero-Pineda trade and explained why, given Pineda's recent injury issues, he wouldn't have made it.

- Brien Jackson of IIATMS took a stab at predicting how long Michael Pineda's rehab timetable will be.

- On Tuesday, Rebecca Glass of the recently resurrected This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes mused on Ivan Nova's spring struggles and why it's still important for him to pitch well this season.

- On Wednesday, FJ25 of Yankees Fans Unite discussed how the Yankees can use their failures with developing Joba and Hughes as a blueprint for how to get it right with Pineda.

- Mike Ashmore of Thunder Thoughts had a profile post on Trenton reliever Chase Whitley, who could make his way onto many top prospect lists with another good season this year.

- On Thursday, Curtis Clark of Bronx Baseball Daily took a position-by-position look at the Yankees defensively.  If Brett Gardner doesn't win a Gold Glove this season, the award should be done away with.

- Josh Norris of Minor Matters got a quick interview with the rehabbing Jeremy Bleich.  Bleich is a former top pick and hopefully he can make it back to the mound this season.

- Jay Jaffe of Pinstriped Bible weighed in with the 5 biggest questions he has about the 2012 Yankees.

- The always on point Mark Feinsand of the Daily News offered up his round of predictions for the 2012 season.

- Matt Hunter of Yanks Go Yard listed the 3 things to pay attention to in the first week of the season.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud had a great post on David Phelps' reaction to making the 25-man roster.  His family will be in the house this weekend to hopefully see him make his big league debut.  Major +1 to Phelps for the Willie Mays Hayes reference.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... offered his 5 predictions for the 2012 season.  No surprise to see he's not confident in the rotation.

- Mike Axisa of RAB offered up his opinions on Joe's recent lineup decisions against right-handed and left-handed pitchers and how Eduardo Nunez factors into those decisions.

As for the Friday Jam, if you've been a regular reader of AB4AR for a while and you don't know what song I'm playing today for Opening Day, then I just don't know what to tell you.  Happy Opening Day, everybody.  Let's go Yankees!



Enjoy your Easter weekends, people.